Guardian BME journalism scheme

The Guardian newspaper has launched a new apprenticeship aimed at raising the numbers of Black and minority (BME) ethnic journalists.

The new scheme offers 12 places for students or graduates from BME communities and will run for 2 weeks during the summer. Successful applicants will learn about the different aspects of journalism, gaining key insights into the workings of the newspaper, website and its multimedia department. Each student will also be assigned a mentor.

At the end of the two week internship students will be offered the opportunity to the Guardian offices and spend an additional week with the news desk they felt was the most useful and relevant to them.

Speaking about the scheme Guardian journalist Joseph Harker said:

"We set the scheme up 10 years ago because it was obvious that Black and Asian youngsters weren't even getting in the door of national newspapers, let alone having the chance for a career there. We went round colleges and careers fairs promoting the programme, and when we saw the quality of people coming forward we immediately knew we had to keep it going.

We've now had over 100 young people come through - all intelligent, motivated and full of ideas. The scheme has been really helpful in helping their careers - by meeting journalists from sections across the paper and website, and by having Guardian journalist mentors. And it's opened the eyes of many of our own editors to a huge pool of talent that's out there."

To apply for this important opportunity please follow this link.

The closing date for receipt of applications is Sunday 3rd April 2011.